Hola! Christmas is in less than a month, woot woot! & the weather is beautiful and perfect today (we did a little spring cleaning...kinda weird right before Christmas) and the only reason I can really understand Christmas is almost here is because they have Christmas candy out in the stores, other than that, I probably wouldn't believe it.
It was a good week...we had Zone Conference on Thursday (that was my Thanksgiving) and we went over our purpose as missionaries and it was a good reminder and motivator to work as hard as you can...because that's why we're all here!
So last week when we went to Katikati, in an effort to save km's since we were planning on driving to Hamilton for Zone Conference, we decided to bike to our dinner appt that night. It was a rough ride, about 10 k's, about 35 min, up and down some hills and I was extremely tired in the middle of this long stretch up hill and thought we were never going to make it, but it was kind of fun at the same time. Even though girls in skirts on bikes is probably one of the most messed up ideas ever. Seriously. It's awful riding a bike in a skirt. Anywho, it'll be interesting being in a biking area. & I was shocked that my legs weren't sore the next day. I haven't ridden a bike in months! That's my picture this week...us and our lovely bikes. I'm working figuring out a name
The most exciting thing this week was when one of our investigators who we've been teaching for probably 6 weeks FINALLY came to church. She's been saying she wants to, but I think the biggest thing is that she's pretty shy, but we've been taking fellowship to meet her, so she felt comfortable knowing people a head of time and then we took her on a tour of the chapel last week (she's out in Katikati). The biggest problem with her is that she won't give us her phone number for some reason, she said she just doesn't like giving her number out, so we can only talk to her when we're out in Katikati and couldn't call her Sunday morning. So we got to Katikati and were so excited when we saw her car in the car park and she had a really good experience. Yay! And all the members were being so helpful with her and her baby, I loved it. She's definitely planning on coming again. She's so good and believes what we've taught her, but it's been hard, obviously, getting her to church and working on getting her to read more from the Book of Mormon.
We had a pretty intense encounter with a dog this week while tracting. So apparently it's a law that you have to have a sign on your gate if you have a dog. We were walking up to one house that had a tall, wooden gate and I was thinking, "Big gate...they probably have a big dog." But I didn't see a sign, so I went in. Then it was a pretty long walk up to the door, in between cars, up the stairs, and then around the corner was the door. The door was open, and as I was knocking, I saw this huge dog sitting on the other side of the couch RIGHT by the door and turned to Sister Perry and said, "Big Dog!" and she BOLTED out of there, and so that scared me more, and then I hear the dog barking, so I'm running as fast as I can trying to keep up with Sister Perry, end up losing a shoe and sock, but I could hear the dog right behind me and didn't think it was worth it to stop, so I just ran out the gate. Sis Perry was dying laughing when she saw me with only one shoe on. I was hoping that he wasn't going to eat my shoe, then about a minute later, the owner came out, we gave him our missionary shpeel, he wasn't interested, and started walking in, and then I asked for my shoe. My goodness, I can feel the adrenaline rush thinking about that. I was shaking so bad afterwards I was so scared, haha. Not cool having to run in flats!!
One more: my Zone Leader, who rode in our car to Zone Conference, asked if I could express myself via hands or facial expressions and not so much with my voice, haha, some things never change.
One of my favortie General Conference talks was Elder Scott's talk about the power of scriptures and it just really hit me how important and beneficial it is to memorize scriptures. I decided to start working on that more, it's just hard because I want to use my personal study to study more, but I've decided I just need to take the time to memorize scriptures! I'm also surprised how well I remember the scriptures from seminary and just realized thankful I am that Sis Johns really helped us to memorize all those in seminary because they're just good to have! Like Elder Scott said, they're friends that you can call on at anytime that won't change over time! So I guess I'm encouraging everyone to memorize a scripture this week! The two I memorized this morning were Moroni 7;16-17 about the Spirit of Christ (I guess that was re-memorizing since it's a master scripture) and also Alma 7:23-24, just values we need to have in this life in order to be blessed! I love the scriptures and it really is a wonderful blessing to have them and be able to study them everyday!
That was kind of a long email, sorry! Hope everyone is whipping out the Christmas decorations! I don't know when we're getting a tree...but I want it NOW! Love you all!
Love,
Sister Mullen
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving over there
Well, we had our 2nd transfer last week and as much as Sister Perry and I wanted to stay together for Christmas (b/c we both love it so much) we were quite certain that one of us would be transferred because she's my trainer, and we were both thinking I was going to be the one staying. We were in the car with the Elders giving them a ride when they got the call about transfers, and we both ended up staying her in Tauranga! We were shocked. We said we probably wouldn't have believed the elders when they called us if we weren't in the car for the call, haha. I was telling Sister Perry how I was bracing myself for the worst, but I've been so blessed with my comp in the MTC and especially Sister Perry. She has helped me so much and we're just such good friends now! I really do feel like a married couple sometimes, haha. So we clearly need to be in this area for a reason, and things have been slow lately, so we're trying to think of how to do things differently, and I was getting pretty stressed last week with everything that's going on and trying to get less actives back to church. It's just a lot of work in this ward...so bring it! & I'll try not to stress out too much, haha. We're also planning a Christmas musical fireside for our ward, so that was adding to the stress as well. Saturday we were going to visit a lot of former investigators because we figured it's easier to say no over the phone instead of in person, but unfortunately a lot had moved, or still weren't interested. But one house, the formers had moved, and so we asked the lady living there now if she was interested and she said , "I think you're all crazy!" and walked off laughing and waving her arms and said, "I don't believe in visible people in the sky!" Not sure if that was about the first vision or what, but it was just really funny. I know lots of people think I'm crazy, but they don't always tell me. Oh the people you get to meet as a missionary!
I almost forgot that Thanksgiving was this week, clearly that doesn't exist here, so we won't be doing anything special. We're eating with some members in our ward on Thursday who told us that they found a place that sells New York sized pizzas (as in American sized pizzas. Here, a large is probably a medium in the states), they were pretty excited telling us about the pizzas, so it looks like we'll be having pizza for Thanksgiving. Oh, and Zone Conference that day, too.
I attached a picture of our district. This was after district meeting last week and we were pretty sure there were going to be some big changes, but it turns out only one elder got transferred from our district, so we're still all together. I'm excited because we're all pretty good friends. In the picture, (L to R): Elder Naicker, me, Elder Martin (who got transferred to Niue, check it out on a map. They stay there for 6 months because it's another country so they have to get another visa, and they just do service the whole time since all 2000 ppl there have heard about the gospel, kind of awesome) Elder Fuataga in front (don't tell him I said so, but obviously he loves the camera), Elder Thomas is behind him, and Sister Perry!
Funny story: The Zone Leaders asked me if my first name was Algah because they saw the card I got from Izzy, but the weird thing is when they asked me that, they also gave me a letter (from Chelsey :) ) that obviously had Allyson on it and they've given me mail in the past, but apparently only looked at that one card. Not the brightest bunch sometimes, haha
I also attached a picture of one of the many gorgeous sunsets we have! The weather has been beautiful here this past week! Like I've said a million times before, it's going to be weird having a warm Christmas, but I'm excited!
Love and miss you all! Have a good thanksgiving!
Love,
Sister Mullen
I almost forgot that Thanksgiving was this week, clearly that doesn't exist here, so we won't be doing anything special. We're eating with some members in our ward on Thursday who told us that they found a place that sells New York sized pizzas (as in American sized pizzas. Here, a large is probably a medium in the states), they were pretty excited telling us about the pizzas, so it looks like we'll be having pizza for Thanksgiving. Oh, and Zone Conference that day, too.
I attached a picture of our district. This was after district meeting last week and we were pretty sure there were going to be some big changes, but it turns out only one elder got transferred from our district, so we're still all together. I'm excited because we're all pretty good friends. In the picture, (L to R): Elder Naicker, me, Elder Martin (who got transferred to Niue, check it out on a map. They stay there for 6 months because it's another country so they have to get another visa, and they just do service the whole time since all 2000 ppl there have heard about the gospel, kind of awesome) Elder Fuataga in front (don't tell him I said so, but obviously he loves the camera), Elder Thomas is behind him, and Sister Perry!
Funny story: The Zone Leaders asked me if my first name was Algah because they saw the card I got from Izzy, but the weird thing is when they asked me that, they also gave me a letter (from Chelsey :) ) that obviously had Allyson on it and they've given me mail in the past, but apparently only looked at that one card. Not the brightest bunch sometimes, haha
I also attached a picture of one of the many gorgeous sunsets we have! The weather has been beautiful here this past week! Like I've said a million times before, it's going to be weird having a warm Christmas, but I'm excited!
Love and miss you all! Have a good thanksgiving!
Love,
Sister Mullen
COUNT CHOCULA!!!!
So basically Mom is the best. I can't believe I completely forgot about Count Chocula til I went digging through my much anticipated package and found a box of Count Chocula. Even my companion was a witness of how excited I was.
First off, let's back track to the week before last. I can't believe I forgot to write about the Relief Society Christmas party we had in the Katikati Branch! Dinner was delicious, but we had a little variety show aftewards, Sister Perry & I did some songs (they love us two, I play, she sings, and everyone is in love with her voice). And then some of the sisters got up and did some Maori dances with a song and it was so fun! Sister Perry & I both agreed that it's pretty lame being white because we have no culture. We were trying to think of something American to do, uhh...Yankee Doodle Went to Town? It was just fun to see everyone loosen up outside of church and I fell more in love with that Branch!
Saturday we took two investigators to the Visitor's Centre again, and because the ward says there's no money for anything missionary related, they just put us on the bus that the Stake takes once a month on Stake temple day. So the bus left at 7, we got there around 8:45, but the VC didn't open til 10, and then were there til 3 because they were doing two sessions. It was a LONG day. So to change up the picture of my comp & I in front of the temple, guess what I did to change things up? Jumping picture! & this one is pretty funny. My hair just cracks me up!
So yesterday, we were tracting around the neighborhood of our dinner appt, which is also the street of one of our former investigators. So our dinner appt fell through, so we went back to the street we were tracting on before. As we were parking the car, we saw our former investigator, Redem, walking down the street. Long story short, she's living with her daughter in law, we were teaching them both, but the daughter in law ended up not wanting us to come to her house anymore, so Redem broke up with us. So we didn't know how Redem was going to treat us as she walked by (So Redem is this 60+ yr old lady from the Philippines), and she hung up her phone and came over to the car to tell us her son in Australia just got baptized, told us to text her so we could meet with her this week and asked if it's okay if she asks all her family in the Philippines to join the church. Kind of a miracle! Hopefully SHE wants to get baptized. She just needs to come to church one more time. It was just such a blessing that we happened to be in the right place at the right time. I don't really care that after tracting for 2 hrs, we didn't have any follow up appts, I'm just glad that we were able to talk to Redem! Hopefully things go will with her!
I have 25 more pages to go in the Book of Mormon. I have LOVED reading it so fast. I feel like I understand the stories so much better of how everything relates. & basically the biggest theme of the Book of Mormon is that life can be GREAT when you're trusting in the Lord and striving to be obedient, and it's amazing how quickly everything can go bad when you get prideful and forget the Lord and no longer make him a priority in your life. I also liked how it said that the Nephites brought these wars upon themselves because they were being wicked and naughty and they could have avoided them if they had just been obedient and remembered the commandments God gave them. Clearly that is something that relates to us today, life really is so much better when we trust the Lord and exercise faith and be obedient. Blessings are predicated on obedience to specific commandments! I love the Book of Mormon and I know without a doubt that it was written for us today!!
Another picture is of us and Sister Moka. She has every missionary who serves in this ward go to her house to make a rock with their name, home town and today's date. She paints the rocks black, we write on em with gel pens and glitter glue, and she paints them with a clear coat. & then she gave us each a rock that she did herself. We got the same design, it's a picture of Tauranga harbor with Mount Maunganui and Matakana Island.
That's it for now. Kind of a long letter. But I have plenty of time to write since I don't have to take much time reading emails :) Love you! Talk to you next week!
Love, Sister Mullen
PS Before I forget, I don't know if Lauren is reading these, but I tried L&P ages ago. It's alright. It takes like lemon flavored, carbonated water. I feel like it could grow on me, but since I hardly ever drink sodas anymore, it just burns my mouth and I think it's something I'll pass on, haha, but I tried it just for you! Also tried toffee pops, so good. But not sure why they're called toffee pops...As far as I know, there isn't any toffee in there.
First off, let's back track to the week before last. I can't believe I forgot to write about the Relief Society Christmas party we had in the Katikati Branch! Dinner was delicious, but we had a little variety show aftewards, Sister Perry & I did some songs (they love us two, I play, she sings, and everyone is in love with her voice). And then some of the sisters got up and did some Maori dances with a song and it was so fun! Sister Perry & I both agreed that it's pretty lame being white because we have no culture. We were trying to think of something American to do, uhh...Yankee Doodle Went to Town? It was just fun to see everyone loosen up outside of church and I fell more in love with that Branch!
Saturday we took two investigators to the Visitor's Centre again, and because the ward says there's no money for anything missionary related, they just put us on the bus that the Stake takes once a month on Stake temple day. So the bus left at 7, we got there around 8:45, but the VC didn't open til 10, and then were there til 3 because they were doing two sessions. It was a LONG day. So to change up the picture of my comp & I in front of the temple, guess what I did to change things up? Jumping picture! & this one is pretty funny. My hair just cracks me up!
So yesterday, we were tracting around the neighborhood of our dinner appt, which is also the street of one of our former investigators. So our dinner appt fell through, so we went back to the street we were tracting on before. As we were parking the car, we saw our former investigator, Redem, walking down the street. Long story short, she's living with her daughter in law, we were teaching them both, but the daughter in law ended up not wanting us to come to her house anymore, so Redem broke up with us. So we didn't know how Redem was going to treat us as she walked by (So Redem is this 60+ yr old lady from the Philippines), and she hung up her phone and came over to the car to tell us her son in Australia just got baptized, told us to text her so we could meet with her this week and asked if it's okay if she asks all her family in the Philippines to join the church. Kind of a miracle! Hopefully SHE wants to get baptized. She just needs to come to church one more time. It was just such a blessing that we happened to be in the right place at the right time. I don't really care that after tracting for 2 hrs, we didn't have any follow up appts, I'm just glad that we were able to talk to Redem! Hopefully things go will with her!
I have 25 more pages to go in the Book of Mormon. I have LOVED reading it so fast. I feel like I understand the stories so much better of how everything relates. & basically the biggest theme of the Book of Mormon is that life can be GREAT when you're trusting in the Lord and striving to be obedient, and it's amazing how quickly everything can go bad when you get prideful and forget the Lord and no longer make him a priority in your life. I also liked how it said that the Nephites brought these wars upon themselves because they were being wicked and naughty and they could have avoided them if they had just been obedient and remembered the commandments God gave them. Clearly that is something that relates to us today, life really is so much better when we trust the Lord and exercise faith and be obedient. Blessings are predicated on obedience to specific commandments! I love the Book of Mormon and I know without a doubt that it was written for us today!!
Another picture is of us and Sister Moka. She has every missionary who serves in this ward go to her house to make a rock with their name, home town and today's date. She paints the rocks black, we write on em with gel pens and glitter glue, and she paints them with a clear coat. & then she gave us each a rock that she did herself. We got the same design, it's a picture of Tauranga harbor with Mount Maunganui and Matakana Island.
That's it for now. Kind of a long letter. But I have plenty of time to write since I don't have to take much time reading emails :) Love you! Talk to you next week!
Love, Sister Mullen
PS Before I forget, I don't know if Lauren is reading these, but I tried L&P ages ago. It's alright. It takes like lemon flavored, carbonated water. I feel like it could grow on me, but since I hardly ever drink sodas anymore, it just burns my mouth and I think it's something I'll pass on, haha, but I tried it just for you! Also tried toffee pops, so good. But not sure why they're called toffee pops...As far as I know, there isn't any toffee in there.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...oh wait
Hola!
Well, things are starting to warm up here and I love it! This transfer feels like it's been pretty slow, but it's crazy thinking we only have a week and a half more, and even crazier that we only have one week left of my training. Ahh, it's going to be weird only having comp study for an hour a day instead of two hours, an hour seems like hardly enough time! & who wants to talk to you at 10 am?
So this week, we met up with this guy that we taught one lesson to a couple weeks ago, and it turns out that the day after our lesson he got an email about the Mormon beliefs, and of course it was wrong and written by a non-member. He gave it to us and we just glanced over it, it had a lot of true stuff, but plenty of false stuff. Especially the last sentence that says that Mormons are led by a distorted view of God's nature and whatever else. Anywho, the lesson we taught him was about the Restoration and about reading and praying about the Book of Mormon to receive an answer, but he took this email that he randomly got the next day as his answer, so we talked about how the only way he can really find out if the Book of Mormon is true and if this is the true church of Jesus Christ, then he needs to sincerely read, ponder, and pray to receive an answer. We asked him if he had, and obviously he hadn't. Hopefully we'll be able to go see him tomorrow and we'll see how he's been going. It's been so hard to get our investigators to read the Book of Mormon lately. Like this one man we are teaching, he's married to a member and has been to church several times. Last week, as in October 30, we went over the Book of Mormon intro with him about reading, pondering, and praying, and then yesterday we had another lesson with him (he lives in Katikati, so we only get to seem them once, maybe twice a week) and he hasn't read at all, and we asked him if we had gone over the intro with him, and he said no, so we went over it again, and then afterwards I realized we had gone over it with him. Ugh. So we also talked about how as you pray and come to know the Book of Mormon is true, you can also come to know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet, and that this is the true church of Jesus Christ, and he said he really wants to know if this is the true church, so I hope he really does read this week! Things have been a little slow this week, we're trying so hard to know what to do to get things moving.
Oh! So last week I had been talking about how I just want to read the Book of Mormon super fast for once, so on Wednesday we decided to start reading and finish it by transfers on the 17th and it's been so fun! Every meal we eat at home, we eat super fast and read the rest of the hour and come home and read at night, I said it's like reading Harry Potter, haha, you just get sucked in. And it's cool because it just gives me a different perspective of the Book of Mormon and is helping me see how all the people and all the experiences relate to each other better, even though we were talking about how we want a family tree of the people of the Book of Mormon so we can know how everyone is related.
Well, I think that's about it for this week. Hope everything is going well with everyone. Sounds like Dad had fun in California last week. I still can't get over how big the primary is in your ward, Kurt and Jenn. And feel free to send me Halloween pictures anyone!
One more thing, so Saturday was Guy Fawkes' day here, and Guy Fawkes' apparently tried to blow up some government/parliament building (I'm not really sure) in England...so now people in New Zealand have bon fires and set off fireworks. Doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, but that's what they do! It's been fun to see fireworks all weekend.
Love you all!
-Sister Mullen
Well, things are starting to warm up here and I love it! This transfer feels like it's been pretty slow, but it's crazy thinking we only have a week and a half more, and even crazier that we only have one week left of my training. Ahh, it's going to be weird only having comp study for an hour a day instead of two hours, an hour seems like hardly enough time! & who wants to talk to you at 10 am?
So this week, we met up with this guy that we taught one lesson to a couple weeks ago, and it turns out that the day after our lesson he got an email about the Mormon beliefs, and of course it was wrong and written by a non-member. He gave it to us and we just glanced over it, it had a lot of true stuff, but plenty of false stuff. Especially the last sentence that says that Mormons are led by a distorted view of God's nature and whatever else. Anywho, the lesson we taught him was about the Restoration and about reading and praying about the Book of Mormon to receive an answer, but he took this email that he randomly got the next day as his answer, so we talked about how the only way he can really find out if the Book of Mormon is true and if this is the true church of Jesus Christ, then he needs to sincerely read, ponder, and pray to receive an answer. We asked him if he had, and obviously he hadn't. Hopefully we'll be able to go see him tomorrow and we'll see how he's been going. It's been so hard to get our investigators to read the Book of Mormon lately. Like this one man we are teaching, he's married to a member and has been to church several times. Last week, as in October 30, we went over the Book of Mormon intro with him about reading, pondering, and praying, and then yesterday we had another lesson with him (he lives in Katikati, so we only get to seem them once, maybe twice a week) and he hasn't read at all, and we asked him if we had gone over the intro with him, and he said no, so we went over it again, and then afterwards I realized we had gone over it with him. Ugh. So we also talked about how as you pray and come to know the Book of Mormon is true, you can also come to know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet, and that this is the true church of Jesus Christ, and he said he really wants to know if this is the true church, so I hope he really does read this week! Things have been a little slow this week, we're trying so hard to know what to do to get things moving.
Oh! So last week I had been talking about how I just want to read the Book of Mormon super fast for once, so on Wednesday we decided to start reading and finish it by transfers on the 17th and it's been so fun! Every meal we eat at home, we eat super fast and read the rest of the hour and come home and read at night, I said it's like reading Harry Potter, haha, you just get sucked in. And it's cool because it just gives me a different perspective of the Book of Mormon and is helping me see how all the people and all the experiences relate to each other better, even though we were talking about how we want a family tree of the people of the Book of Mormon so we can know how everyone is related.
Well, I think that's about it for this week. Hope everything is going well with everyone. Sounds like Dad had fun in California last week. I still can't get over how big the primary is in your ward, Kurt and Jenn. And feel free to send me Halloween pictures anyone!
One more thing, so Saturday was Guy Fawkes' day here, and Guy Fawkes' apparently tried to blow up some government/parliament building (I'm not really sure) in England...so now people in New Zealand have bon fires and set off fireworks. Doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, but that's what they do! It's been fun to see fireworks all weekend.
Love you all!
-Sister Mullen
Apology
I apologize for the lack of posting Ally's letters. I didn't realize how backed up I was. I will get on that ASAP.
Much Love,
Megan
Much Love,
Megan
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Cooked Avocados
Kia Ora!
So a couple weeks ago we got heaps of avocados from one of our recent converts. She just moved into a new house and lives pretty much right on an avocado orchard, so she gave us bags of avocados. And in the past, we would put our green avocados on the windowsill and they would ripen up and would be perfect, but now that it's getting warmer and the sun is becoming more deathly, it ended up cooking all, prbly 20 of our avocados. I wanted to cry and was depressed all week. We opened a couple and they just smelled awful. Thankfully we got some more this week, so it's all good. Just remember, don't put your avocados on the windowsill. I heard that putting them by apples actually help them ripen up.
Last week had a rough beginning, but it ended up flying by. First off, the most memorable experience I've had with a dog. So we were going to see these boys we haven't talked to in weeks (they're ready to get baptized, but their dad,who is hardly in the picture, isn't okay with it, so we were giving them time to breathe from us) anywho, so here, there is almost always a house behind every house you see on the road. So they live in the house in the back and you have to go down a little hill, we've been there several times, but this time, the front house had this beast of a dog. I started walking back there, but then the dog came running after us, so we ran back out to the street. We tried one more time, failed, the dog came running out again. So we decided to try to go around the other side. Worst idea ever, there's a wall on the side we first tried, but this other side, there isn't a wall around the back porch, so it was like running into the dog and he came BOLTING after us, I was so scared! & it's not easy running in flats. Then their neighbor heard us kind of screaming and running and said over the fence, "yous okay?" & I just lost it and busted up laughing at how ridiculous the situation was. We tried one more time, on the other side, but the dog still wanted to eat our faces, so we finally knocked on their door (their grandma is a less active who we've met before, who lives in the front house) and the grandma started laughing when we told her we had been running from the dog & she said she would hold the dog. & then we FINALLY made it back to the house, but they weren't home. But Heavenly Father knows we were trying! (PS like the first week we got here, I had a spider in my room and was FREAKING out and made Sister Perry kill it for me, now, I kill spiders all the time. They have a serious problem with spiders, especially daddy long legs here. But I was thinking how it's funny that I could hardly kill a spider that is a million times smaller than me, but I was so much more willing to try to face the dog that could bite my face than Sister Perry was. I'm so weird)
So this week I feel like we've had a huge emphasis on the Book of Mormon, maybe because Sister Perry & I both read the Ensign all about the Book of Mormon (PS if you haven't read it, you should, it's awesome. PPS At the end, they have pictures of like YSAs for this question part about the Book of Mormon, and of course the red head is the not-as-cute one, she has glasses, hardly no make up and her hair isn't that cute and she has a dorky face...Sister Perry was NOT happy that they were contributing to the bad reputation red heads have, while on the other had I was dying laughing about it). We also had a fireside last night with some musical numbers by the missionaries, some testimonies from recent converts (the two recent converts ended up taking up 30 minutes, where I'm sure the plan was 5 min at the max each), our mission president spoke and so did our stake president and they spoke about the Book of Mormon. & I've just really had it emphasized to me this week the importance of the Book of Mormon and how it really is the foundation to our whole church. If the Book of Mormon isn't true, then Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet, this isn't the true church, we don't have the real priesthood authority from God and everything else is a joke. & I know without a doubt that if anyone reads the Book of Mormon and prays with a sincere desire to receive an answer, they WILL receive it! & I know that when anyone receives that answer, it is just natural to have that desire to be baptized! So that's really what we've been working on this week. We had a lesson with this lady in Katikati who we met like over a month ago, but have had a hard time setting up a time to see her, and we taught the Restoration and gave her the Book of Mormon and I'm SO excited because I really think she is going to start reading it. I'm so excited to work with her! She seems so ready! A nice breath of fresh air because things have been rough lately. We had this guy getting ready to be baptized this weekend (he lives with a couple where the wife is a member, but the husband isn't) but found out that the husband is a horrible influence for him. The husband was coming to church at one point, but now he is quite against the church and has pulled Tao away from the church as well when we was doing so good before and reading the Book of Mormon all the time. But we're still holding on to him! We're trying so hard and hoping that we'll see some miracles soon! That's it for now, love you all! Enjoy your Halloween enough for me too! Halloween is not a big deal at all here, and hardly exists. I'm so sad.
Love, Sister Mullen
PS I'm in New Zealand. I'm a legit missionary. Both of those facts still blow my mind.
PPS the pictures attached are from our hike up Mount Maunganui again last week. & some sheep we saw walking down the mount. I actually feel like we see cows way more than sheep, but it's still more sheep than I've seen anywhere in the states.
So a couple weeks ago we got heaps of avocados from one of our recent converts. She just moved into a new house and lives pretty much right on an avocado orchard, so she gave us bags of avocados. And in the past, we would put our green avocados on the windowsill and they would ripen up and would be perfect, but now that it's getting warmer and the sun is becoming more deathly, it ended up cooking all, prbly 20 of our avocados. I wanted to cry and was depressed all week. We opened a couple and they just smelled awful. Thankfully we got some more this week, so it's all good. Just remember, don't put your avocados on the windowsill. I heard that putting them by apples actually help them ripen up.
Last week had a rough beginning, but it ended up flying by. First off, the most memorable experience I've had with a dog. So we were going to see these boys we haven't talked to in weeks (they're ready to get baptized, but their dad,who is hardly in the picture, isn't okay with it, so we were giving them time to breathe from us) anywho, so here, there is almost always a house behind every house you see on the road. So they live in the house in the back and you have to go down a little hill, we've been there several times, but this time, the front house had this beast of a dog. I started walking back there, but then the dog came running after us, so we ran back out to the street. We tried one more time, failed, the dog came running out again. So we decided to try to go around the other side. Worst idea ever, there's a wall on the side we first tried, but this other side, there isn't a wall around the back porch, so it was like running into the dog and he came BOLTING after us, I was so scared! & it's not easy running in flats. Then their neighbor heard us kind of screaming and running and said over the fence, "yous okay?" & I just lost it and busted up laughing at how ridiculous the situation was. We tried one more time, on the other side, but the dog still wanted to eat our faces, so we finally knocked on their door (their grandma is a less active who we've met before, who lives in the front house) and the grandma started laughing when we told her we had been running from the dog & she said she would hold the dog. & then we FINALLY made it back to the house, but they weren't home. But Heavenly Father knows we were trying! (PS like the first week we got here, I had a spider in my room and was FREAKING out and made Sister Perry kill it for me, now, I kill spiders all the time. They have a serious problem with spiders, especially daddy long legs here. But I was thinking how it's funny that I could hardly kill a spider that is a million times smaller than me, but I was so much more willing to try to face the dog that could bite my face than Sister Perry was. I'm so weird)
So this week I feel like we've had a huge emphasis on the Book of Mormon, maybe because Sister Perry & I both read the Ensign all about the Book of Mormon (PS if you haven't read it, you should, it's awesome. PPS At the end, they have pictures of like YSAs for this question part about the Book of Mormon, and of course the red head is the not-as-cute one, she has glasses, hardly no make up and her hair isn't that cute and she has a dorky face...Sister Perry was NOT happy that they were contributing to the bad reputation red heads have, while on the other had I was dying laughing about it). We also had a fireside last night with some musical numbers by the missionaries, some testimonies from recent converts (the two recent converts ended up taking up 30 minutes, where I'm sure the plan was 5 min at the max each), our mission president spoke and so did our stake president and they spoke about the Book of Mormon. & I've just really had it emphasized to me this week the importance of the Book of Mormon and how it really is the foundation to our whole church. If the Book of Mormon isn't true, then Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet, this isn't the true church, we don't have the real priesthood authority from God and everything else is a joke. & I know without a doubt that if anyone reads the Book of Mormon and prays with a sincere desire to receive an answer, they WILL receive it! & I know that when anyone receives that answer, it is just natural to have that desire to be baptized! So that's really what we've been working on this week. We had a lesson with this lady in Katikati who we met like over a month ago, but have had a hard time setting up a time to see her, and we taught the Restoration and gave her the Book of Mormon and I'm SO excited because I really think she is going to start reading it. I'm so excited to work with her! She seems so ready! A nice breath of fresh air because things have been rough lately. We had this guy getting ready to be baptized this weekend (he lives with a couple where the wife is a member, but the husband isn't) but found out that the husband is a horrible influence for him. The husband was coming to church at one point, but now he is quite against the church and has pulled Tao away from the church as well when we was doing so good before and reading the Book of Mormon all the time. But we're still holding on to him! We're trying so hard and hoping that we'll see some miracles soon! That's it for now, love you all! Enjoy your Halloween enough for me too! Halloween is not a big deal at all here, and hardly exists. I'm so sad.
Love, Sister Mullen
PS I'm in New Zealand. I'm a legit missionary. Both of those facts still blow my mind.
PPS the pictures attached are from our hike up Mount Maunganui again last week. & some sheep we saw walking down the mount. I actually feel like we see cows way more than sheep, but it's still more sheep than I've seen anywhere in the states.
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